Barack's presence on Black men

Visit the bedroom of most any African American lad and it wouldn’t be surprising to see posters of some star athlete or favored entertainer adorning his wall. For these adolescent males, their pictures represent either who they aspire to be like or what they potentially seek to become. By dressing the walls with their chosen images these boys set before them a continuous reminder of what their goals look like.

In addition to the pictures projected on bedroom walls, these young impressionable boys too often become infatuated with images embellished by African American males on television as well as those colorful illustrations of black males in their neighborhoods.

Body tats enveloping their bodies, saggin’ jeans decorating their undergarments, menacing stares plastered on their faces and despicable dispositions launched with ferocity are too often the images many young men choose to mimic. These attributes, filled with death – spiritual and physical – too often flood the intellectual databases of these youngsters.

Fortunately over the course of the past 21 months black males, men as well as boys, have been blessed to bear witness to a new image – President-Elect Barack Obama. The blessings of Obama arrived long before Nov. 4 when he, the first African American, was elected as the 44th president of the United States. His daily appearance before the world gave the fraternity of African American men, a new poster to adorn on the walls of our minds; a new portrait in which to draw inspiration from.

In Obama, African American males have an excellent example of how to deal with haters. With grace and dignity Obama has demonstrated how to treat people with respect despite the fact that they have shown nothing but disrespect for him. When one considers that of the 16,400 murders committed in 2005 in American that 8,000 were black males, mostly at the hand of a person of color, Obama’s demonstration of how to be cool in controversial situations is instructional for a nation of men committing murder. Black males now have a blueprint of how to properly define and defend oneself in the midst of everyone else trying to negatively define and offend them.

In Obama, black males have an icon for possibility. We witnessed a man free of the poison of impossibility. In Obama black males saw a rendering of faith in action – “Yes We Can, and Yes He Did.”

In Obama, black males have a portrait of a black man who demonstrates how “real” it is to have a wife; more importantly he exhibits publicly how a man is to love his wife. Michelle and Barack is a beautifully painted portrait of “Black Love.” How needed is that visual rendering when statistics reveal that African Americans represent the lowest percentage of married couples in America as well as holding the pole position in divorce.

In Obama, there is a huge poster hung on the nightly news and in daily news publications of how important it is for a father, no matter how important his career is, to invest in intimate loving moments with his children. A world witnessed in Obama the love he has for Malia and Sasha and how much his daughters love their daddy.

In Obama, black boys have a photo that reveals that being educated isn’t an R.S.V.P for white boys only nor is speaking proper English exclusive to nerds. Black boys have seen in Obama a swagger of intelligence and oratory abilities far superior to today’s top hip-hop artist.

A nation of black boys see in Obama that playing basketball and giving a partner some dap is cool, but speaking with authority and intelligence is as cool.

In Obama, black males have the testimony of the nation’s most powerful man excelling despite the pain of his father’s abandonment as well as the absence of any material affluence, possibility because of his father’s absence.

In Obama, black males can believe that they truly can be anything they desire. And hopefully in Obama black males have learned that his harvest (becoming the first African American president) is the result of seeds he planted; seeds of tithing his time, his talents and sometimes his treasures selflessly for the benefit of others.

Because of the historic achievement of Barack Obama a flood of calendars will be published, tee-shirts manufactured and pictures will become decoration on the walls of many African American households. I pray that these visual images are constant reminders that represent who black men can aspire to be – black men who are “the husband of one wife, having children not accused of dissipation or insubordination . . . a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, . . . not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict,” Titus 1:5-16.

A stupid black man

I am a huge opponent of Larry Elder’s ideology, but I believe the underpinning of his book, “Stupid Black Men” is authentic. In the book, released February 2008, Elder used his controversial views to take those he labels as “racial ambulance chasers” to the woodshed to challenge their “racism done me wrong” mindset.

“Whether they are demagogues like Al Sharpton, established politicians like Hillary Clinton, or entertainers like Danny Glover, no one escapes Elder’s cogent arguments and rapier wit,” reads the book’s front flap cover.

Although racism still produces its harvest from seeds planted decades ago, I too believe that too large a percentage of black folks have chosen to view the glass of racism as half empty rather than half-full. The strides that blacks have achieved over the past four decades have been historic and our opportunities exceed those of our forefathers by leaps and bounds.

As African Americans living in the 21st century we are the beneficiaries and descendents of ancestors who struck down slavery, Jim Crow and segregation and did so with a grace that missing in today’s “the white man is holding me black” mindset. No, we can’t sit by ideally and allow our rights to be breeched by 21st century racism practices, but neither should we be decreeing racism in those situations where it does not exist or become so intolerant that white folks are unable to freely discuss issues without being label a racist.

Elder contends that the actions of black leaders like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sharpton and guilt-ridden white liberals are dividing the country by angrily emphasizing differences rather than celebrating similarities. He maintains that these race card baiters are playing the race card and losing.

There is some truth in his ascertains, however his position on the subject matter is filled with as many holes as those he debates.

While the premise of Elder’s book is plausible, his reasoning – which I’m sure he believes is rational – is ridiculous and reveals that Elder is one “stupid black man.”

Self-described as a someone who has been a thorn in the side of the conventional wisdom crowd, Elder’s “Stupid Black Men” as a complete body of work, was somewhat of a thorn in the side of my conventional wisdom He uses 267 pages to try and convince readers that Democrats are dumb, Republicans are right and black folks spend too much time “bitching.” He spends much of his word count suggesting that folks like Jackson, to include guilt-ridden white liberals are alarmist, always playing the “race card.” But Elder fails to see that he is playing the “race card” as an apologist for the Republican Party – always exonerating any wrong committed by those good ole right-wing conservatives. Elder, Jackson and Sharpton, in their arguments, are all riding on the spirit of truth, but all are bucked by the truth because in their spirit they choose never to straddle the balance of that truth. Truth covers a broad spectrum.

Elder’s stupidity can be seen in his propensity to see simply what he wants so that his point of view is corroborated.

In the seventh chapter entitled, “The Criminal Justice System” Elder provides a recap of the racial tension that took place during the debacle, call the Duke rape case. Elder was sure to let his readers know the innocence of the three accused lacrosse players and indicted those “racial ambulance chasers” that included former District Attorney Mike Nifong, Sharpton and other activist who supported the accuser’s claim. Earlier Elder chastised Sharpton’s presences in another racial charged rape case. In 1989 Sharpton called Trisha Meili, the “Central Park Jogger,” a whore. When discussing this case Elder features only Sharpton’s epithet, he fails to provide for his readers the fact that those five accused black boys, like the three white boys from Duke, were innocent. He also failed to explain that those accused black boys were initially convicted despite there being no DNA evidence to connect them to the crime. Selective reasoning was evident throughout the book.

In other examples of Elder’s bewildering reasoning he paints beautiful portraits of the Republican Party suggesting that the Democrats are ungrateful for the righteousness of the GOP. He also agrees with Mychal Massie, chairman of the black conservative group Project 21, who said, “The NAACP sees racism behind every tree and bush.” Elder sees racism nowhere or at least fail to provide one case where he thought it existed.

What really reveals the ignorance of Elder is his controversial title. In “Stupid Black Men” he clearly takes issue with white liberals and alarmist; call out white folks like Nifong and the Clintons (Bill and Hilliary). Yet the title of his book denigrates black men. I’m only left to believe that naming the book “Stupid White Men,” "Stupid White Women" or “Stupid White Liberals” would have resulted in fewer book sales, or it might have placed Elders in jeopardy with his white brethrens. Elder’s book title was however somewhat poetic, it did include the thought process of at least one “stupid black man.”